Randy Seaver’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun this week is to tell about your Most Recent Unknown Ancestor and to identify what resources you might use to find him or her.
My Most Recent Unknown Ancestors are the parents of my great great grandfather, William M. Saunders. He is number 20 on my pedigree chart and his parents would be numbers 40 and 41.
William Saunders married L. J. (Louisa J.) Scarborough on the 15 Dec 1859 in Anderson County, TX. The 1860 Anderson County, TX census shows William M. Sanders, age 18, born in Texas and L. J. Sanders, age 20, born in Arkansas. Louisa’s brother, John Scarborough, age 18, born in Arkansas, is living with them. Louisa’s parents have already moved on to Johnson County, Texas by 1860. There are no other Saunders/Sanders families living in Anderson County that could be the parents of William. I have searched at the Anderson County courthouse for deeds for William and found none. More than likely, he did not own land there.
William and Louisa had two sons: William Henry Saunders (my great grandfather), born in Feb 1862 and John M., born in Sept 1863.
I believe that William and Louisa moved to Bosque County, Texas between 1860 and 1866. William Saunders died sometime before July 1866, as Louisa married David Henry Eddleman on 12 July 1866 in Bosque County, Texas.
The only reference to William's death is found in the Probate Minutes of Bosque County, Texas, Volume D1, page 619. It reads as follows:
Thursday, Nov. 1st 1866
#95 D. H. Eddleman Guardian of the minors William H. Sanders & John M. Sanders heirs at law.
This case coming to be heard and the court being satisfied Petition had been filed and notice given as the law requires It is therefore ordered by the Court that D. H. Eddleman be appointed guardian of the Person and Estate of the Minors William H & John M. Sanders and that letters of Guardianship do issue as soon as he shall have filed in this Court a sufficient Bond. Ordered this case be continued until the next regular Term. There were no other minutes on this case. Either David Eddleman never filed the bond, or it is missing from the records.
I have searched for records of Civil War soldiers, thinking that William may have been killed in the war. I have searched for deeds, probates and a Will and have not found anything telling me about the life of William, nor found even a hint as to whom his parents were.
I searched the 1850 census in Texas looking for a William Saunders born around 1842. I found one family with a William M. Saunders, age 8, which fits my William’s age exactly, as does the middle initial. The father in that family was also named William and he and his wife had several young children in 1850. I cannot find this family in the 1860 census, nor can I find any trace of them in Anderson County or Bosque County; therefore, I don’t know if this is the right family or not.
I have also searched in Arkansas where Louisa’s Scarborough family was living. That did not produce any results, either.
What to do now? I would like to go back to Bosque County and do more searching just to make sure that I didn’t miss something the first time. I also need to check the deeds to see if perhaps Louisa (Scarborough) Eddleman disposed of any land that could have belonged to her and William. In the meantime, I will keep doing periodic searches on the internet and on Ancestry with the hopes of finding another relative who is researching this line.
I searched my Blanton surname and received the following results.
The United States had the largest concentration worldwide of the Blanton surname with 94.7 persons per million. Canada was second with 0.92 persons per million, then the United Kingdom with 0.9 persons per million and Germany with 0.11 persons per million.
In the United States, the three states with the highest concentration of Blantons were Kentucky with 520 persons per million, South Carolina with 518 persons per million and North Carolina with 415 persons per million.
Next, I looked at the distribution of Blantons in Texas. This was surprising. The highest concentration was in Clay County. One of David Blanton's sons, Charles Wesley Blanton, lived in nearby Wilbarger County, but his children moved to other counties. The second highest concentration was in Rusk County. These are possibly ancestors of a branch of Blantons from North Carolina who settled in Rusk County in the 1800's.
On the same day in March 1836 that the Republic of Texas was born, another birth was taking place near Clarksville in Red River County. Mahaley Emaline McAnear was born on that day to Alexander and Elizabeth "Betty" (Blanton) McAnear. Alexander and Betty were my 3rd great grandparents and Mahaley Emaline was my great grand aunt. She later married her cousin, Benjamin Blanton.
On her 85th birthday, she wrote an article, probably for the local newspaper. I have a photocopy of the clipping, but the name of the publication was not included. Below is a copy of that article.
OLDEST NATIVE TEXAN LIVING
Mrs. M. E. Blanton, Munday, Knox Co., Texas
On March 2, 1921, I was 85 years old. I was born fourteen miles east of Clarksville, Red River County, Texas, March 2, 1836, the day that Texas declared her independence of Mexico. As far as I know, I am the oldest native Texan now living in Texas. My parents and family of five children came from Alabama to Texas in 1833, settling in Red River County, where I was born three years later. My father's name was Aleck McAnear. In May 1856, we moved to Johnson County, Texas, settling on McAnear Creek (named for my father), just northwest of where the town of Cleburne now stands.
On Jan. 31, 1858, I married Benjamin Blanton. We moved to Cherokee County, Texas, and the following July we moved back to Johnson County. Eight children were born to us, four boys and four girls, all of whom are now living. My husband died March 22, 1919.
We lived sixty-one years in Johnson County, when my two daughters and myself came to Munday to live with my youngest daughter, Mrs. Bettie Rodgers. Only three of my father's family are now living of eleven children. They are Mrs. Ruthy McNeil of Vera Texas, Mrs. Nancy Mathis of Cleburne, Texas, and myself. My husband was in the Civil War. He was in charge of the commissary department and was sent west to collect cattle for the army. He had several narrow escapes from death at the hands of the Indians. In August, 1874, he camped in front of the home of the Huff family in Wise County. The following night the entire family was massacred by Indians.
We old pioneers did our part in freeing Texas from the dominion of the Indians and the desperadoes, and hand the liberated State to posterity without blot or blemish, in the hope that rising generations will keep it from the sordid selfishness and greed of those who may wish to exploit it in the interest of any unworthy or unscrupulous clique, clan, or crew.
Article privately held by Debbie McCoy, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE], Texas.
One hundred seventy-three years ago, on March 2, 1836, the Texas Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Convention of 1836 which met at Washington-on-the-Brazos, thus declaring Texas as a free and independent Republic. Happy Birthday, Texas!
